Artificial Intelligence1 min read

STAT+: As more doctors consult chatbots, health systems can block them — or buy in

By · Via STAT Health · Published by Everything Blog

In short

Hundreds of thousands of medical professionals have turned to tools like OpenEvidence and Doximity Ask, utilizing agreements that purportedly comply with federal HIPAA privacy regulations. However, the unchecked entry of protected health information into these systems has alarmed leadership concerned with decision-making standards and data governance. In response to these risks, Monument Health blocked OpenEvidence after discovering an employee had uploaded over a hundred patient records into the platform.

Key points

  • Growing clinician reliance on free artificial intelligence tools is forcing health system…: Growing clinician reliance on free artificial intelligence tools is forcing health systems to choose between banning or formally adopting the technology.
  • Regulatory compliance agreements by artificial intelligence vendors are driving frontline…: Regulatory compliance agreements by artificial intelligence vendors are driving frontline medical staff to input sensitive patient treatment data.
  • Executive interventions are occurring as hospital leaders discover unmonitored patient re…: Executive interventions are occurring as hospital leaders discover unmonitored patient record aggregation within external clinical chatbots.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Earlier this year, Patrick Woodard had to have a talk with one of the hundreds of clinicians that work at Monument Health, where he is chief information officer. The South Dakota and Wyoming-based health system had decided to block access to OpenEvidence, the popular free artificial intelligence tool, and Woodard had gotten a few objections.

One of them, Woodard recounted, was from a super user. This doctor was storing more than a hundred patient records inside OpenEvidence, and feeding them to the artificial intelligence tool for help making medical decisions. That would have to end, Woodard told him.

In the last year, free chatbots built to answer clinician questions — including OpenEvidence, Doximity Ask, and ChatGPT for Clinicians — have grown in popularity. Hundreds of thousands of doctors use the tools, in part, because they claim to be compliant with the federal health data privacy law HIPAA, allowing users to share a patient’s protected health information directly with the AI after signing an agreement. That assurance is meant to address one potential risk of the technology, while making it more…

Artificial Intelligence